Scoop!!! Vodafone launching USB 3G Broadband card

I've been using the PCMCIA version for my soon-to-retire Acer 1694WLMi, and i had grudgingly decided to give up complete mobile freedom (MBP has ExpressCard/34), but Vodafone has rescued all MacBook & MacBookPro users..

As described already, installation is dead easy, and it does seem to work ok regarding speeds. One thing to note though, is that the modem seems to automatically bump you off the higher speed band when you're not using it actively e.g. if you're just chatting etc, it'll drop from 3G broadband to just 3G, or even from 3G to GPRS as indicated by the LED. As soon as you do something like open a browser window, it'll bump itself back up again to the highest available at that time - anyone else noticed this?

*Bonus functionality for those with XP on bootcamp - it works simply by plugging in, as its got the core drivers stored on it so no install CD to worry about, and it 'just works' on the windows side - rare for me to say that

hmmm one would consider the option. My boss says he has problems with his datacard on the eurostar between ashford and london, but using his phone is absolutely fine and gets 3g all the way...

anything to make my future commute easier!

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The really annoying thing (from my point of view) is that whilst this seems tailor made to work with a Mac. It won't talk to the Cisco VPN client. Cisco's client doesn't see a network connection.. which means that it's futzing with the IP stack in the mac... Not that Cisco's client isn't but it's sitting on top of the network connection.

Unfortunately that means this is an unusable solution for me. Much better to have a Bluetooth phone with 3g.

The really annoying thing (from my point of view) is that whilst this seems tailor made to work with a Mac. It won't talk to the Cisco VPN client. Cisco's client doesn't see a network connection.. which means that it's futzing with the IP stack in the mac... Not that Cisco's client isn't but it's sitting on top of the network connection.

Unfortunately that means this is an unusable solution for me. Much better to have a Bluetooth phone with 3g.

Faye

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That would also seem like a good solution, however one would need to check that we can unlimited data usage on phones (like we can on datacards).

The really annoying thing (from my point of view) is that whilst this seems tailor made to work with a Mac. It won't talk to the Cisco VPN client. Cisco's client doesn't see a network connection.. which means that it's futzing with the IP stack in the mac... Not that Cisco's client isn't but it's sitting on top of the network connection.

Unfortunately that means this is an unusable solution for me. Much better to have a Bluetooth phone with 3g.

Faye

Click to expand...

Have you tried using the 'Restart Cisco VPN Client' script? I had this problem and the script solved this...

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